Amid a slew of damning allegations about Pete Hegseth’s excessive drinking and sexual impropriety, Hegseth’s friends at Fox News are publicly pushing back on the claims while urging Republicans to push through the ex-Fox & Friends host’s nomination for defense secretary.
The full-court press by Hegseth’s former Fox colleagues comes as the 44-year-old is pulling out all the stops in hopes of saving his bid, including having his mother show up at his old haunt to denounce her past claims of Hegseth’s abusive treatment of women while pleading with President-elect Donald Trump to stick by her son.
At the same time, Fox News staffers and insiders who spoke with The Independent wonder if Hegseth’s recent media blitz and the rallying of the Fox News troops is just as much about helping set the stage for a potential return to the conservative cable giant as it is in terms of getting him over the finish line at the Pentagon.
While Hegseth’s path to conformation already looked tenuous following last month’s revelation that he paid hush money to a woman to keep a 2017 sexual assault accusation quiet, the dam burst late last week with a bevy of stories detailing allegations of alcohol abuse, crude and sexist behavior, Islamophobia and financial mismanagement of two veteran advocacy groups that he led.
After the New York Times reported that Penelope Hegseth accused her son in a 2018 email of “abusive behavior” toward women, the New Yorker followed up with a deep dive into Hegseth’s record running Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans of America – finding that many former employees claimed he poorly managed funds and once drunkenly shouted “kill all Muslims” in a bar, among other allegations.
Though these bombshell stories initially received scant coverage on Fox News, commentators and hosts at the right-wing network finally spoke out after NBC News reported on Tuesday night that Hegseth’s alleged drinking problems sparked concerns among his Fox colleagues. Two of his former Fox & Friends Weekend co-hosts told NBC that they smelled liquor on his breath while he was on air.
In the wake of that story, current Fox & Friends Weekend host Will Cain reacted by calling the claims “100 percent bulls***” and “horses***.” Rachel Campos-Duffy, who co-hosted the morning show with Cain and Hegseth until Hegseth’s recent departure, agreed with Cain and ripped NBC for not reaching out to her for their article.
“The losers at NBC News never reached out to me either. Will Cain is right – your story IS horsesh*t. You now have 2 people who sat next to him 8+ hours a week on the record. Will you retract or correct your story?” Campos-Duffy tweeted, adding: “Worth repeating, NBC News used ‘anonymous’ sources & unconfirmed stories to smear Pete Hegseth as a drunk on the job & never once asked his FOX & Friends coworkers who sit right next to him???”
Cain would then collect other reactions from former and current Fox News staffers who defended Hegseth and insisted that he never drank on the job, adding them to an ongoing thread on X. As of Thursday afternoon, the thread includes 28 separate people – Fox guests, producers, reporters and hosts – vouching for Hegseth’s professionalism.
While Cain would also record a podcast episode that Fox News described as “debunking” NBC’s “hatchet job,” the hosts of the weekday version of Fox & Friends angrily defended their “buddy” on Wednesday morning, saying they would “not succumb to the left’s playbook” while claiming Hegseth was the victim of a “smear” campaign.
“We can’t allow them to ‘Kavanaugh’ Pete because I feel like that’s what they’re trying to do right now,” host Lawrence Jones exclaimed, referring to sexual assault allegations that came to light against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation.
Hegseth himself claimed he was being “Kavanaugh’d” during a sympathetic Wednesday afternoon interview with former Fox News star Megyn Kelly, who has also vociferously defended her one-time colleague against the “mud-slinging” from “anonymous sources.”
While Hegseth was sitting down with Kelly, writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal and meeting with GOP senators to insist he was a “changed” man who promised not to “drink a drop” of alcohol while defense secretary, his mother appeared on Fox & Friends to distance herself from her 2018 condemnation of her son and trash the media along the way.
At the same time, she buttered up to the network, proudly proclaiming that her son grew “as a leader” and “communicator” at Fox. “Being a TV news host prepares you for most things in a position like this: good communicator, think on your feet, take charge,” she declared. “Everybody should do a year with Fox!”
The combination of Penelope Hegseth’s appearance on Fox & Friends, which also featured her repeatedly thanking the hosts for having her son’s back as his controversies grow, and the increasing list of network personalities publicly backing their former colleague has led to speculation from some that this isn’t just about trying to save Hegseth’s nomination.
“I feel the ‘we’re on your side,’ the patting on the back, the ‘we’re family’ that you’re seeing – it feels like the family is preparing to welcome him back into the fold,” one current staffer told The Independent.
Another network insider wondered if the interview with Hegseth’s mother was “more about her trying to get her son’s job back at Fox once he withdraws,” noting that she made a point of thanking the network over and over while saying that being a TV host was a great job.
A former Fox producer, meanwhile, said that the “passionate defense” of Hegseth from a growing number of Fox News personalities over the past two days suggests that they may be laying the groundwork for Hegseth to return to Fox if his nomination peters out.
The network insider, though, pointed out that it seemed “unlikely” that Fox News management would take him back, even with so many network staffers publicly declaring the drinking on the job claims are false.
Since the accusations of sexual assault and subsequent payoff first arose, the network has reiterated that they were unaware of the allegations while Hegseth worked at Fox News. Additionally, the network’s leadership has made a concerted public effort in recent years to distance itself from the Roger Ailes era, which featured a bevy of sexual harassment and misconduct claims that resulted in the departures of prominent hosts and hefty legal settlements.
The Independent has reached out to Fox News and Hegseth for comment.
